Tuesday Poem—A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning
John Donne 1571-1631
As virtuous men passe mildly away,
And whisper to their soules to goe,
Whilst some of their sad friends doe say,
“The breath goes now,” and some say, no:
So let us melt, and make no noise,
No teare-floods, nor sigh-tempests move,
‘Twere prophanation of our joyes
To tell the layetie our love.
Moving of th’ earth brings harmes and fears,
Men reckon what it did and meant,
But trepidation of the spheres,
Though greater farre, is innocent.
Dull sublunary lovers’ love
(Whose soule is sense) cannot admit
Absence, because it doth remove
Those things which elemented it.
But we by a love, so much refin’d,
That our selves know not what it is,
Inter-assured of the mind,
Care lesse, eyes, lips, and hands to misse.
Our two soules therefore, which are one,
Though I must goe, endure not yet
A breach, but an expansion,
Like gold to ayery thinness beate.
If they be two, they are two so
As stiffe twin compasses are two,
Thy soule the fixt foot, makes no show
To move, but doth, if th’ other doe.
And though it in the center sit,
Yet when the other far doth rome,
It leanes, and hearkens after it,
And growes erect, as that comes home.
Such wilt thou be to mee, who must
Like th’ other foot, obliquely runne;
Thy firmnes drawes my circle just,
And makes me end, where I begunne.
Source: Donne, J., Selected Poems of John Donne, Reeves, J. ed, Heinemann Ltd, London, 1952
I have always loved the poetry of John Donne: the wealth and cleverness of his language; the extravagant intermingling of the profane and divine in his poetic imagery, juxtaposed with the taut discipline of poetic form–as well as Donne’s ability to springboard the reader into larger awareness through the use of a motif, such as the compass in this poem, which is mundane and everyday. I particularly like this poem, A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning, because although it displays all his hallmark cleverness, or wit, these cerebral qualities are balanced by tenderness and real depth of emotional feeling.
Ah, that is beautiful. I hadn’t heard of him before, but I’ll go looking for more of his poetry now.
Oh – that is exquisitely sad and so beautifully made. Thank you Helen.